Dogfish Head Brewery's New Oat Milk Beer Has People Talking

Oat milk beer might be among the most attention-grabbing headlines you've seen surrounding the incredibly trendy alternative milk. While there was a little excitement among the dairy-free community when Silk announced they would be giving away oat milk to a few lucky customers for the rest of the year to celebrate National Coffee Day and some buzz when Dunkin' recently released an oat milk latte, Dogfish Head Brewery definitely appears to be the first brand to work the trend into the alcohol industry.

"Oat milk is definitely having a zeitgeist moment right now in the culinary world," Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione said to Food and Wine. "Sales of hard seltzers — the fastest-growing alcohol sector — are up low triple digits, year-to-date. Sales of oat milk are up almost 1,000-percent this year." If those impressive numbers aren't enough reason for the brewery to seize the moment and incorporate oat milk into a beer, then the delicious flavor it creates might be. "There are lots of hazy IPAs out there now," Calagione continues, "but finding true points of differentiation in this style category isn't easy, and we think we hit the bullseye in that regard. Malted oats have been a go-to ingredient to enhance haze and flavor in hazy IPAs for well over a decade. We worked at this recipe for well over a year to nail the ratios and layers of oat formats." All of that hard work seems to have paid off, because the smooth and silky beer sounds delicious.

Calagione explains to Food and Wine that Hazy-O!, Dogfish Head's new hazy IPA, is brewed with several kinds of oats: malted, rolled, and naked oats. However, finishing the brew off with oat milk was the key. While most people are used to seeing oat milk as a creamy addition to coffee or in a bowl of cereal, the same delicate flavor and texture are added to this IPA. The addition of oat milk actually makes the beer much hazier than usual, and creates an incredibly soft, creamy mouthfeel. At about 7 percent alcohol by volume, the beer still packs a boozy punch. 

If you just can't wait to try this new oat beer, then you may be in luck! There will be a limited-time launch of the product beginning at 11 a.m. on October 2nd. Dogfish Head will be selling Hazy-O! on draft at both their Delaware-based locations, in their brewery's tasting room and kitchen and at the Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats. The beer will also be available in four-packs from the brewery, located in the city of Rehoboth. If you live nowhere near Delaware, well you'll unfortunately just have to wait for the drinks official nationwide roll out next year (via Refinery29).